IKEA bomb scare was blackmail plot: report

Ten Dutch IKEA stores forced to close because explosives were found in two outlets had been targeted for months in a criminal extortion plot, De Telegraaf newspaper reported yesterday.

According to the paper, criminals sent the first letters demanding millions of euros in cash and threatening to plant bombs in stores of the Swedish home goods giant in September.

But a Dutch IKEA spokeswoman denied that the chain had been blackmailed.

"This information did not come from a source within IKEA and we do not know anything about it," Johanna Soutendijk, of IKEA Netherlands, told AFP.

IKEA closed its 10 Dutch outlets yesterday, in the middle of the busy holiday shopping season, after police found explosives in two stores in Amsterdam and Sliedrecht, near Rotterdam. Two policemen were injured when one device they were trying to defuse blew up in a nearby police station. ");document.write("

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IKEA issued a press release from its Sweden headquarters saying that the company's Dutch office had received a threatening letter before the explosives were found.

The Dutch public prosecutor's office, which is heading the investigation into the bomb scare at the furniture giant, would not give any details as to the motives of the bombers.

The authorities stressed that this was not an attempt at a terrorist attack on the Netherlands.

"We must not create an image that terrorism has suddenly struck in the Netherlands," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said.

The prime minister said he believed that criminal organisations were behind the bomb alerts received by IKEA.

De Telegraaf reported that the blackmailers already sent several "warnings" to IKEA in October to show they were serious.

In their latest letter, quoted by the paper, the criminals warned the Swedish company that they had shown they had the power and the means to shut down all ten stores.

"This is a warning, next time will be the big one. We will not announce anything and people will get hurt. You will suffer the consequences," the letter said.

IKEA initially tried to solve the problem internally, without raising the alarm, according to sources close to the investigation cited by De Telegraaf.

Today, eight of the ten IKEA stores in the Netherlands will be open for business.

The company told Dutch NOS television it had stepped up its security measures.

IKEA did not release details about the new measures or how long they would be in place.